Food and Cooking Vocabulary in English

Food and cooking vocabulary is an essential vocabulary stock especially prepared for those who speak English language as a second language. Native language is always a rich language in every aspect and when we look at speaker of non-native languages, they face many problems while speaking second language. Here is the list of all those food and cooking vocabulary words, which we use for food and cooking. 

Food and cooking vocabulary

Bake

Meaning: We use this word to cook food such as bread or cake in an oven using dry heat as in microwave oven.

Example: We will bake few cakes for his birthday party.

Barbecue

Meaning: to roast or broil meat, chicken or fish over hot coals or an open fire.

Example: We barbecued fish and ribs last Sunday and enjoyed a lot.

Bite

Meaning: to cut food item by teeth to eat like cookies or sandwich

Example: He bit the cookie in half. She ate the sandwich in four quick bites.

Bitter

Meaning: a strong and unpleasant flavor or something too much sour

Example: These almonds are very bitter.

Bland

Meaning: lacking strong flavor and having no good or original taste

Example: This vegetable soup is very bland. It does not taste well.

Buffet

Meaning: Buffet is a meal with serving counter having multiple dishes in meal. It is normally served in restaurants and inns.

Example: We went to a Turkish buffet and enjoyed a good meal.

Creamy

Meaning: food made from cream or tasting like cream

Example: I would like to take a creamy peanut butter.

Crispy

Meaning: food that is dry and easily broken

Example: Fry the potato chips until they are crispy and brown.

Crunchy

Meaning: a type of food with hard texture and making a loud sound when chewed under teeth

Example: The peanut cookies were crunchy.

Dessert

Meaning: a sweet course normally served at the end of the meal.

Example:  I do not like desserts in dinner but I am crazy for desserts in breakfast.

Pudding

Meaning: A thick soft and creamy food usually made from rice, eggs or bread that people eat normally cold and served in meal as desserts.

Example: In Pakistan, pudding is served as a dessert after meal.

Fish

Meaning: meat of salt-water fish / sea fish or fresh water fish

Example: We barbequed fish at dinner on last Sunday.

Fried

Meaning: something cooked in oil in a frying pan

Example: My son is crazy for fried potatoes chips.

Game

Meaning: meat of wild animals like rabbit, hare, partridge, pheasant etc

Example: Game birds are those birds those are legally allowed to hunt.

Grill

 Meaning: to cook, fry or toast food direct over hot surface over fire

Example: During the summer, we grill meat outside usually.

Gulp down

Meaning: to swallow or eat very quickly in large quantity

Example: He gulped down the pizza in four bites.

Guzzle

Meaning: to drink something very quickly or greedily and in large amount

Example: He guzzled a glass of water after he finished the job.

Loaf

Meaning: a piece of bread or cake

Example: I ate one loaf of bread in breakfast. 

Lump

Meaning: a small piece or amount of something

Example: Put of a lump of cream on top of the casserole to make the cake creamy.

Red Meat

Meaning: meet of lamb, pork or beef

Example: In Pakistani culture, people cook red meat mostly in wedding parties.

Microwave

Meaning: to make something heat up in microwave oven.

Example: Microwave the sandwich for two minutes and eat.

Mild

Meaning: not strong or harsh in taste

Example: The taste of these spices is very mild. 

Overcooked

Meaning: something cooked for more time than required

Example:  Overcooking made these potato chips crunchier. 

Pan-fried

Meaning: fried in a frying pan

Example:  Would you like a piece of fish fried in frying pan?

Pint

Meaning: a unit of measuring liquid

Example: She drank a pint of ale at the bar

Poach

Meaning: This word is used commonly (in food and cooking vocabulary) to cook in boiling liquid.

Example:  I prefer to poach eggs in breakfast.

Portion

Meaning: a quantity of food taken during male

Example: Have you eaten your portion of desserts?

Poultry

Meaning: (“white meat”) meet of chicken, turkey, goose or duck

Example: Poultry is cheap than red meat.

Pour

Meaning: to put some liquid into something like glass, cup, jug etc

Example: Pour the cola over ice cubes and taste it. 

Raw

Meaning: vegetables or food in natural state

Example:  Salad is made from raw vegetables. 

Ripe

Meaning: fruits or vegetable those are fully-grown and ready to eat.

Example:  Make sure the apples are ripe so we can use them in the juice.

Rotten

Meaning: rotted or decayed food that is not able to eat

Example:  This fish smells rotten; throw it away.

Roast

Meaning: to cook something with dry heat in an oven or over a fire

Example: Let us put chicken in the oven and roast for one hour.

Salty

Meaning: having a quantity of salt in it

Example: The potato chips were a bit salty and crispy.

Sip

Meaning: to drink in small quantity (to suck liquid by air into mouth)

Example: It is best to sip a coffee rather than gulp it down at once.

Snack

Meaning: a small amount of food eaten between meals

Example: I eat snack at four o clock usually.

Sour

Meaning: having an acid taste like lemon

Example: The milk had turned very sour.

Shake

Meaning: Move something forth and backward quickly to mix its ingredients.

Example: Shake the juice well and pour into a glass.

Starter / appetizer 

Meaning: the first thing eaten as part of a meal

Example: People usually prefer salad and drinks as starter in their meal.

Stir

Meaning: This term is used in food and cooking vocabulary for to mix something with spoon or stick making a circular movement

Example: Stir the sugar well and enjoy juice with your favorite lunch. 

Steam

Meaning: something placed in steam vapors before cooking (Steamed:  cooked over a saucepan of boiling water)

Example: The easy way to cook many vegetables is to steam them before cooking for few minutes.

Stir-fried

Meaning: to fry something over high heat while being stirred continuously

Example: Usually I take stir-fried eggs in breakfast.

Stewed

Meaning: something cooked for a long time on a low heat

Example: Stewed foods are easy to digest.

Tasteless

Meaning: food that does not has a good taste

Example: The meat has been cooked for too long. It‘s tasteless.

Tough

Meaning: food with hard texture, difficult to chew

Example: The cookie was very tough. I could hardly chew it!

Unripe

Meaning: vegetables or fruits those are not full-grown and not ready to eat or cook and picked before their ripen time

Example:  Oranges and bananas are picked unripe mostly and become ripe as they are shipped.